Why BfN ops doesn't suck (imo)
Preface
I have seen a lot of people who say the Ops mode in BfN sucks when compared to gw1 and especially gw2. As all of you now by now, we were promised substantial upgrades to ops since even before launch and they couldn't keep their promise in the end. From what we have seen from data miners, ops phase 3 would have been a lot of fun. But the point of this post is not to talk about what could have been, but what we have now.
Contrary to the popular opinion, I really like Ops in BfN
My background with the series
I have played all 3 PvZ shooters and massively prefer BfN over the GW games, especially GW2. I know that GW2 isn't a bad game to most and that it is a beloved game to many. I do not want to criticize others for having preferences, but I expect the same treatment in return. Please don't just reply by saying GW2 is better or comparing any other aspect of the games this is just meant to be about Ops. I know people here are very respectful when discussing, but I still wanted to have this disclaimer. What I'm about to write is just my opinion and I don't consider it to be a fact.
Why I prefer Ops in BfN over GW2 Ops
Here's the points most people make when comparing Ops in GW2 to Ops in BfN:
- Ops should be more "meaningful" - it should be harder and being vanquished should have "consequences" like in GW
- It is too short - it should at least have 10 waves
- There should be multiple places to build your garden on the map
- Building bots & pots should cost you something instead of the timer system in BfN
My opinion:
I don't agree with any of these points, except the option to build the garden at different spots. I don't consider the lack of this feature to be a huge deal, though.
Point 1 - "consequences"
Honestly, I do not understand this notion at all. A game should never punish the player for playing it. The concept of "Life" and punishing player is so outdated. You may have noticed that many games are moving away from it, and that's a good thing, in my opinion.
I didn't like Ops in GW/2 a whole lot.
Even with the easy difficulty setting, it could end up being way too hard and filled with frustration, which isn't the case with BfN.
Healing was useless. Even when you were standing next to a Sunflower, you still could end up being vanquished quickly. Once you were and no-one revived you, you couldn't join the wave anymore. It was simply boring. Allowing the player to respawn males for a better experience. It happened many times in GW that the entire team was vanquished, after one player was vanquished and not revived. You had the chance to use a group revive item, but that didn't change the fact that Ops was too hard for many, especially new players.
Ops should be the "friendly" mode where you have fun with others and not a competitive mode.
I love too play Ops to relax, and now it is actually enjoyable, even if you encounter players who are inexperienced. I know many would like to have a bigger challenge, but I feel like you would be better off playing PvP instead. Ops is a mode that allows for mindless fun and is great to gain more confidence when new to the game. That's something that is mostly impossible in pvp. Therefore, I am of the opinion that Ops should be allowed to keep the easier and more relaxing nature. Again, optional higher difficulty settings could solve this, but it would unnecessarily divide the player base.
Point 2 - it should be longer
Personally, I prefer shorter Ops. 5 wave ops enables you to play as plants and zombies if you decide to play 2 games of it in a row. With al of the special waves and elite bosses, It feels like you get a wider variety in a shorter amount of time, I know that adding 5 more waves would allow for the same variety, but it gives new players a greater sense of accomplishment and encourages them to keep playing.
In addition to all of this, it reduces the chances of someone going afk. It enables you to keep playing with your team until the end and not leave them to their one if you suddenly can't continue playing for much longer.
Point 3 - Pots & bots no longer being consumables and having a cool-down timer instead
I think this change is great. GW2 didn't incentivize using them. It even made it seem like a personal loss to use them. After all, you were paying coins to get them in the packs and having them being group into different tiers made a lot of players simply not use the good ones they got. BfN enables everyone to use them equally, no matter how many coins they have. In addition to this, BfN prevents players from not having anything to plant, because the basic pot and bot are always available.
While I disagree on BfN ops being good, the main reason I liked Ops in GW2 the most (GW1 the ops weren't as good as some of the bonus waves were too strict, such as; 'no one take any damage at all' for a bonus is far too difficult to achieve), is that were enjoyable and had a lot of their own flavor. Ops in BfN are a mess. I had a lot of hopes for Ops phase 3 making them better in multiple ways, but alas, it was not to be.
Challenge and consequence: I'm not one for a game that punishes you like EQ used to do if one person in a raid of 36+ people messed up and wiped the whole raid, but BfN Ops are largely boring. GW1 dialed the challenge up a bit too high for Ops, especially for certain waves and the evacuation could be daunting. GW2 I felt hit the challenge vs. enjoyment factor very well (on normal at least). BfN ops, barring the 2 difficult epic bosses (Squash and Yeti King) are only rarely challenging which makes them a bit dull to play. If they had difficulty levels like GW1 and 2 did, that would go a long way.
I don't want Ops to be so easy they're boring, but I also don't like cccrraaazzzzyy! ops in GW1 or 2 much barring the achievements or for quests.
Length: I don't mind 5 waves myself as it means you can the Ops done faster but a lot really don't like it being 5 I know we've seen posted. I miss the evacuation more than 10 waves myself, that last minute scramble to get to the escape area and keep everyone upright and in that circle had some of my favorite moments in these games.
Multiple places to place a garden/graveyard: Not a huge deal really, although I did like the change of scenery having 3 spots to place allowed. Also, always liked the idea of getting one being an enchanted spot to get extra coins if you wanted to use your stars. Of course in BfN there's no reason to worry about coins all that much.
Bots and pots consumable vs. cool down: I really don't mind this at all. I have so many of each consumable in GW1 and 2 that it didn't matter anyway. My issue with this in BfN is that there's so few to choose from. There should be a lot more available, and not less than we had before. It was bad enough that GW2 cut some of the consumables we had in GW1 while not adding enough new ones, but BfN makes this even worse. The cool down is nice for TT more than Ops as it keeps the one person from spamming nothing but outhouse/coffin zombies every point. I don't really miss the team retries and self-revives all that much as I have thousands of the things in GW2.
The problems I have with BfN's ops are a bit different:
1-The lack of flavor and character: For example Baron Von Bats doesn't summon Vampire Zombies and the Disco zombie boss doesn't summon backup dancers, they just summon generic browncoat variants. The utter lack of unique and themed enemies makes Ops unexciting and bland. There are so many more different types of opponents to fight in GW2 Ops when compared to BfN Ops. This is even worse for the bonus waves; no vase smashing or present grabbing, no purple chickens or Pop-smarts, no tombstones or scarecrows it's just so unexciting to play Ops in BfN when they all have this unexciting sameness about them.
2-Bad enemy indicators and other issues: BfN Ops are the first Ops where I see the indicators that enemies have spawned at that point and nothing is spawned there. And this happens a lot. I've been questing in GW2 more again and every time I see a spawn indicator, there's at least 1 plant/zombie there. I've not had a single BfN Op where at least one of these indicators isn't wrong. It's frustrating and obnoxious. Other issues include having your special wave be announced as 'huge', but having a 'huge wave' as the special wave and it's half the size of the wave is not a good thing. I've also had bosses stuck off map and had to bail as no one could find/damage them; and Super Bean bosses lack an indicator so you often have to go hunt them down, which can take awhile and makes people that think its bugged out so they leave.
3-The boss wave slot machine: Again, BfN makes it less fun and interesting. No more extra coins (not that we need them I admit), or re-spinning when you get extra diamonds or bags of coins, no extra regular enemies to attack, no super boss waves. Barring the elite bosses, which I do like quite a bit to be fair, the boss waves in BfN just aren't as good and lack that little extra bit of fun when the slot machine comes up. Also, it being only 1 slot instead of 3 separate ones is an odd choice, although they do balance the number of bosses spawned based on the number of players in BfN, that's not enough.
4-Not being able to choose a side: This isn't as bad for those of us that don't mind playing either side but if you really want to work on a character challenge or want to level a specific character, being put in an Op of the other side is not good.
5-No difficulty settings: I'm going to say that what we have is probably considered 'easy' or maybe 'normal', and I usually play either normal or crraaazzzyyy and not much else in GW2 but it's a missing option, and that's a downgrade instead of an improvement.
6-No bots in solo Ops: Unless this was added since I last played a solo Ops that is. If this is an option now, then disregard this point, but in GW2 you could not only solo an Ops, you could have up to 3 AI with you, and you choose what variants they are. This would be nice to have in BfN.
Ops phase 3 could have been a great boon for Ops in BfN and I was excited for it for sure, but what we have in BfN is just hollow and lacking.
